Method and apparatus for modeling print jobs

ABSTRACT

A system and method for modeling print jobs provides a central server that is accessible to remotely located print shops. The remote print shops are able to communicate with the central server to forward print job parameters and to receive the output from a modeling program to enable the print shop to run “what-if” scenarios to maximize print shop efficiency. The central server is also provided with various other print shop tools to assist with print shop design and organization.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a Continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No.10/052,505, filed Jan. 11, 2002, now U.S. Publication No. 20030149747,published Aug. 7, 2003, by the same inventors, and claims prioritytherefrom.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a document production serverand more particularly to a method and apparatus for modeling print jobprocessing by a remote print shop.

2. Description of Related Art

Peak efficiency in the operation of a print shop requires modeling to beperformed. Modeling provides the ability to determine efficient jobroutings, resource allocation, efficient scheduling and the like. Asprint shops continuously attempt to achieve ever higher levels ofefficiency and utilization, the need for modeling increases. However, aprint shop is faced with the problem of achieving this ability to model.

One way of obtaining this ability is to establish an in-housecapability. For example, a print shop may purchase expensive softwaremodeling tools from vendors or develop their own software and maintainspecially trained and skilled personnel to maintain and carry out themodeling. For many print shops, if not all of them, this is practicallyimpossible or too demanding.

Another alternative is for a print shop to hire an independent outsideconsulting service to visit the print shop and to provide a single setof recommendations for increasing efficiency. However, these consultingservices can be fairly expensive and are generally used infrequently, ifat all.

Conventional print shops are also organized in a manner that isfunctionally independent of the print jobs, the print job mix, and thetotal volume of print jobs passing through the system. Most commonly,equipment that is somewhat related is grouped together on a factoryfloor. This causes all printing equipment to be grouped in a singlelocale and, for example, all finishing equipment to be grouped in aseparate locale. In other words, conventional print shops typicallyorganize resources into separate departments, each departmentcorresponding to a particular process that is performed in completing aprint job.

When a print job arrives, the print job sequentially passes though eachdepartment. Once the print job is completely processed by a firstdepartment, the print job is placed in queue for the next department.The queue is sometimes in the form of a temporary storage facility. Thisprocess continues until the print shop makes its way through eachdepartment and is completed.

There are a number of limitations with conventional print shops. Forexample, the equipment employed in conventional print shops is not wellinterfaced with internal computer systems. In addition, the equipment isoften physically organized in an inefficient arrangement.

Typical arrangements employ machines that require operators toload/unload jobs, monitor job progress, pass jobs on to a next station,and commence a next job. In between each of the steps, each job iscommonly stored in a storage area awaiting the next step of the job. Asa result, excess inventories may buildup and add to the costs of thejob.

A physical job card is used to track progress of a job. The job cardspecifies the steps needed to be completed to finish the job. The jobcard also specifies the steps already completed, and the order in whichsteps are to be performed. The data regarding job completion is manuallyadded to the job card, or sometimes is only remembered by the operatorsworking on the job.

The lack of real time information concerning the contemporaneous stateof the machines and the jobs leads to less efficient plant utilization,and lower productivity. Further, large jobs cannot easily be split intomore efficient smaller job lots due to the difficulty in tracking thesmaller job lots.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a centralized server forproviding analytic services to print shops which are located remotelyfrom the centralized server. In this manner, the remote print shop whichapprises itself of the services offered by the methods and systems ofthe invention does not need to invest in the capital and labor necessaryto provide modeling.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a server is provided whichis accessible to remote print shops via the Internet. The server isadapted to provide print job modeling, print shop design andorganization services. The server may be accessible by skilled personneland may be provided with up-to-date modeling and other analytical tools.The server may provide customized modeling services to many remote printshops simultaneously. The ability to access such modeling servicesprovides a significant savings to a print shop when compared to thecapital expenditures required of dedicated modeling services. Acentralized location for the server enables the capital expenditure ofthe system to be shared by several remotely located print shops whosubscribe to the system, thereby drastically reducing the cost to eachprint shop and without degrading the quality of modeling servicesavailable to the subscribing print shops.

Print shop managers may access the server which may be in communicationwith the equipment in their print shop and quickly determine thecapacity of their print shop to handle new jobs. Over time, informationabout each remote print shop and the corresponding print jobs may becollected by the server and stored in a database. The collectedinformation may then be used to analyze the mix of jobs performed by aremote print shop and the results of that analysis may be used toestablish a more efficient print shop layout.

In a related patent application, U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/706,430, filed on Nov. 3, 2000, a system and method for partitioninga print shop into autonomous cells is disclosed and in another relatedpatent application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/706,078, filedon Nov. 3, 2000, a system and method for coordinating production ofdocument processing jobs among a plurality of autonomous cells isdisclosed. The entire contents of these applications are incorporatedherein by reference. A “cell” comprises at least one device forcompleting the document processing jobs. These print shops are known as“Lean Document Factories” which have substantially improved efficienciesand operating margins. Embodiments of the present invention provide asystem and method for modeling and processing print jobs through theseLean Document Factories. Other embodiments of the present inventionprovide a system and method for partitioning remotely located printshops into autonomous cells using a central server and for remotelycoordinating production of the document processing jobs through thesecells.

In a Lean Document Factory, print jobs are partitioned into classes suchthat each autonomous cell contains sufficient resources to complete aprint job of at least one class. Thus, for example, an autonomous cellmay include equipment, such as multiple printers, a shrink wrapper and acomputerized control system. A second autonomous cell may includedifferent varieties of printers, cutters and copiers. The resources ofthese remotely located print shops have their resources intelligentlydivided and the system and method of the invention assigns print jobs tothe autonomous cells for the purpose of modeling the processing of thesejobs and/or for controlling the processing of these jobs.

The assignment of print jobs to autonomous cells at the remote printshop by the central server is done intelligently to provide desired loadbalancing and throughput. Moreover, print jobs are assigned to cells bythe central server based on whether the cells have sufficient types ofresources to complete the print job. The assignment of print jobs to theautonomous cells may be determined dynamically based upon the currentqueue of print jobs, current available capacity and current operatingloads of the respective autonomous cells. The structure and compositionof the cells themselves may be determined dynamically based upon theprofile of jobs to be performed by the remote print shop at any giventime.

The print job is sent to a selected one of the autonomous cells at theremote print shop that has equipment for completing the print job.Alternatively, the print job may be divided into lots by the centralserver and the lots are concurrently processed either on separate itemsof equipment in the selected autonomous cell or in separate cells.

Embodiments of the system of the invention may include a work flowmapping module at the central server that determines a work flow of thedocument processing jobs at a remotely located print shop. The printingwork flow system at the central server may also include a jobdescription module for splitting the various document processing jobsinto sub-jobs. A print cell controller may be provided at selected oneof the cells for receiving at least one sub-job and for furthersplitting the sub-job into lots for processing among devices in theselected cell.

In accordance with an additional aspect of the invention, embodiments ofthe present invention are provided with a central server for assigningsub-jobs to available cells at a remote print shop in a priority workflow system for printing a product-type. The method entails identifyingthe maximum capacity of the available cells to print the product type.The current capacity of each of the available cells to print producttype is communicated and identified by the central server. Based on themaximum capacity and current loading of each of the available cells, acurrent capacity of each of the available cells for printing theproduct-type is determined by the server. At least one of the availablecells is assigned for printing.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method ispracticed by the central server for reorganizing a remotely locatedprint shop. The system analyzes the current print shop organization andthe print jobs that are to be produced by the print shop, and theoperations required for each of the identified jobs are specified to theserver. A determination is made by the server to specify the print shopresources that are received or required for the identified operations. Adetermination is also made to specify the print shop resources that arerequired for operations to produce the product based on customer demandfor the products. The print shop resources may then be reorganizedand/or partitioned into autonomous cells based on the determined numberof print shop resources required for operations to produce print jobsbased on customer demand. Each autonomous cell is independently capableof performing at least one of the identified print jobs. Thisorganization of the print shop is re-examined and re-optimizedrepeatedly as the customer demand for print jobs changes. For example,the server may store print shop organization information in a databaseand may receive parameters regarding a mix of expected print jobs, basedupon this information the system may suggest revisions to the print shoporganization to more effectively handle the expected print job mix.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows schematic diagram of a method and system for modeling printjobs in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic detail view of a server of the system shown inFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a first exemplary user interface for the method and systemfor modeling print jobs of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 shows a second exemplary user interface for the method and systemfor modeling print jobs of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

In the operation of embodiments of the invention, the remote print shopbeing modeled is organized in accordance with lean document factoryprinciples. In a lean document factory, large jobs are split intosmaller batches and then these batches are processed sequentially sothat the entire job “flows” through all steps of the production processuntil the job is finished. To ensure smooth production flows withoutbottlenecks, it is necessary to determine how many resources should beallocated to each step of the production process. This is determined byconstructing models of the job and running the models to determineoverall performance. When a job is acquired by a printing facility, itis necessary to determine the most efficient way of performing the jobusing the “small-batch continuous flow controlled approach” whileconsidering some restrictions on available resources. In simpler cases,analytical models can be constructed and when these are not possible,simulation models need to be used.

The centralized server works with remotely located print shops todevelop appropriate models and provide them with user interfaces tospecify the parameters for running the models. The user interfacepermits a manager of the print shop to enter parameters which areappropriate for a specified modeling application and to transmit theseparameters to the central server. This service enables the print shoppersonnel to optimize and improve the production parameters beforeinitiating production. This is a very useful service especially if thejob is a repetitive one (i.e. it repeats itself with differentparameters). In this first example, a simulation is used along with ananalytical model, specifically using a third-party simulation softwaresuch as Arena (available from Rockwell Software in Sewickley, Pa.).However, it is to be understood that any modeling program may be madeaccessible on the central server for the remotely located print shopsusing the systems and methods of the invention. The architecture,therefore, involves a production model that executes on the server 16 asshown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 1 shows a workstation 10 at a remotely located print shop incommunication with a modeling system 12 via a network 14. Although, FIG.1 only shows a single remote workstation 10, it is understood that anynumber of workstations 10 may communicate with the modeling system 12and services may be provided to all of these workstations 10. Themodeling system 12 includes a server 16, a server workstation 18 and adatabase 20. A print shop manager may use the remote workstation 10 toinput data (parameters) regarding the remote print shop and print jobs.This data may include information regarding the number of individualitems in the job; parameters describing the print-job such as number ofpages in each item, job name, job identifier, etc; parameters describingthe resource requirements at each stage of the production process (suchas printing capacity, finishing device capacity, the number of availableoperators, etc.); statistical parameters describing the process requiredto complete the job (such as failure history, repair history, resourceperformance fluctuations, difference in performance across operators andresource material related dependencies, etc); job control informationsuch as batch size or the number of batches to use, the inter-processbuffer size, type and parameters of the control policy; and theproduction costs per unit time used for each resource; resourceparameters such as machine and labor cost and the like and materialparameters such as paper type, cost, size and the like. The controlpolicy including information such as a scheduling algorithm,prioritization of print jobs and allocation of resources to those jobs.In response to the input of this data, the server may execute a model ofthe print job flowing through the print shop and generate output data.This data may include the bottleneck process for the given set ofparameters; the turnaround time for the job; estimates of the optimalbatch size to use; estimates of the total cost of producing the job;suggested optimal parameters to use for the control policy and the like.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a server 12 in accordance withembodiments of the invention. The server 12 includes a modeling module22, a design module 24 and a reorganization module 26. The modelingmodule 22 is adapted to execute at least one of several print jobmodeling programs. This modeling program may be located on the server 12in the modeling module 22 for indirect access through the use of anexemplary embodiment of the invention. The software modules may becontinuously updated at the server without requiring similar updates ateach print shop that uses the system. This can result in a significantsavings for the print shop, without a sacrifice in modeling ability. Itis contemplated that these and other modules may be provided to theserver 12 without limitation as long as the modules may be of service toa remote print shop.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary user interface 28 having an Empire job familymodel 30 that is frequently processed by a remote print shop. The userinterface 28 is a displayable file having multiple input fields. The job30 requires production and shipment of coil bound books to individualcustomers. The processes required to produce the book are sequential andinclude black-and-white printing 32, punching 34, coil binding 36 andverification 38. The production processes needed to produce this job donot change on a daily basis. However, the number of books to be printedand the number of pages per book vary an a day-to-day basis. If one wereto produce this book using small batches in a controlled pull framework,it would require determination of optimal batch size as well as thenumber of resources to deploy at each stage of the production process toensure smooth production without bottlenecks. The modeling program isaccessed by the remote print shop using the user interface 28 todetermine these and other parameters, such as the number of printers touse, number of finishers to use and the like.

Since the job of FIG. 3 is produced at a regular frequency, a model ofthis job can be constructed by experts at the remote server 12 as a partof the service to the remote print shop and stored on the database 20.The user interface 28 is presented to the print shop as shown in FIG. 3.Each day as jobs arrive the print shop, personnel can supply theparameters 40 of the job through the interface 28, execute the modelremotely on the central server and perform extensive what-if studies onthe specific order.

In other embodiments, in operation the model executes on the clientside. FIG. 4 shows a second exemplary user interface 50 for this secondexemplary operation of a service for computing optimal buffer size in aproduction process using a JAVA applet. While the server 12 hosts aweb-site for providing the modeling service, when the client specifiesjob parameters 52 through the user interface 50, the model program isforwarded to the client workstation 10, runs on the client workstation10 and displays the results 54 of the model.

In accordance with other embodiments of the system of the invention,modeling services may also be provided using a mixture of client-sideand server-side processing. The remote client is not likely to see anyreal difference except for possible transit time delays.

With the present invention, remotely located print shops are able toreceive a customized high-level analysis of the shop operations both onthe short-term and long-term scales without hiring extra personnel andperhaps, by eliminating some currently held positions, at a substantialsavings. Other types of modeling services may also be provided tosupport the interaction between the print shop and end customers, aswell as, between print shops. The centralized services offered by theinvention are less expensive to carry out than if the individual printshops were required to carry out these services on their own.

As shown in FIG. 2, in addition to the modeling services provided by themodeling module, other services may be provided by embodiments of theinvention, including, without limitation, print shop design andreorganization services. While the modeling module 22 is adapted toreceive print shop organization parameters and print job parameters todetermine the most efficient method of processing the print job, thedesign module 24 may be adapted to monitor the equipment within theremote print shop over a period of time. The design module 24 may beadapted to track the performance of the print shop and store thatperformance data in the database 20. The design module 24 may theninvoke a design program to analyze the performance of data and tosuggest revisions to the print shop. For example, the design program 24may analyze the performance data and determine that a bottleneck existswhich might be remedied by an adjustment and/or change of equipment inthe print shop. Additionally, the reorganization module 26 may beadapted to analyze the current print shop configuration and receiveparameters regarding a change in print job mix at the print shop andmake suggestions for reorganizing the print shop. For example, thereorganization module 26 may analyze the parameters of the new print jobmix and the current organization of the print shop and suggest therelocation of equipment and/or an adjustment to the cells in the leandocument factory of the print shop. The reorganization module 26 mayalso be adapted to track information about the print shop and/or the mixof print jobs to make suggestions for future revisions to the print shopbased upon the current mix of print jobs or based upon an expected mixof print jobs and the associated parameters.

While the embodiments of the invention have been described above asproviding access to the server via a network such as the Internet, it isto be understood that the invention is not limited in this manner. It isto be understood that the print shop may access the server via any formof communication and still practice the invention as long as the serveris capable of automatically providing output to the print shop via thesame or another form of communication. For example, access to the servermay be provided using the public telephone system, via email, and/or viaa facsimile based communications system and the like.

Additionally, while the above disclosure may have described print jobparameters in the singular it is understood that multiple print jobs mayalso be modeled and still form a part of the invention.

Furthermore, the disclosed method may be readily implemented in softwareusing object or object-oriented software development environments thatprovide portable source code that can be used on a variety of computeror workstation hardware platforms. Alternatively, the disclosed modelingsystem may be implemented partially or fully in hardware using standardlogic circuits or VLSI design. Whether software or hardware is used toimplement the systems in accordance with this invention is dependent onthe speed and/or efficiency requirements of the system, the particularfunction, and the particular software or hardware systems ormicroprocessor or microcomputer systems being utilized. The modelingsystems and methods described above, however, can be readily implementedin hardware and/or software using any known or later-developed systemsor structures, devices and/or software by those skilled in theapplicable art without undue experimentation from the functionaldescription provided herein together with a general knowledge of thecomputer arts.

Moreover, the disclosed methods may be readily implemented as softwareexecuted on a programmed general purpose computer, a special purposecomputer, a microprocessor, or the like. In this instance, the methodsand systems of this invention can be implemented as a routine embeddedon a personal computer such as a Java® or CGI script, as a resourceresiding on a server or graphics workstation, as a routine embedded in adedicated electronic message management system, a web browser, anelectronic message enabled cellular phone, a PDA, a dedicated computercontrolled display system, or the like. The modeling system can also beimplemented by physically incorporating the system and method into asoftware and/or hardware system, such as the hardware and softwaresystems of a dedicated computer controlled display system.

Having thus described the basic concept of the invention, it will berather apparent to those skilled in the art that the foregoing detaileddisclosure is intended to be presented by way of example only, and isnot limiting. Various alterations, improvements, and modifications willoccur and are intended to those skilled in the art, though not expresslystated herein. These alterations, improvements, and modifications areintended to be suggested hereby, and are within the spirit and scope ofthe invention. Additionally, the recited order of processing elements orsequences, or the use of numbers, letters, or other designationstherefor, is not intended to limit the claimed processes to any orderexcept as may be specified in the claims. Accordingly, the invention islimited only by the following claims and equivalents thereto.

1. A system for assessing performance of at least part of at least oneprint production facility, the at least part of the at least one printproduction facility including one or more print related devices,comprising: A. a workstation operatively associated with the at leastone print production facility; B. a processor; C. a user interface witha display for operation with said workstation, said user interfacedisplaying,
 1. a representation of a model, the model being (a) obtainedacross a network from a server communicating with and being remotelydisposed of the print production facility, and (b) constructed at theserver, based on functional and structural parameters associated withthe at least one print production facility, to correspond with at leastone workflow including a plurality of processes with each of the one ormore processes corresponding with one or more print related componentsrequired to execute a print job,
 2. a plurality of print job relatedparameters, and
 3. a plurality of user settable values respectivelycorresponded with said plurality of print job related parameters; and D.wherein, responsive to a user setting one or more of the plurality ofuser settable values, at least one simulation is performedelectronically with the plurality of user settable values on saidprocessor in accordance with the model to display, on the display ofsaid user interface, at least one value for indicating performance ofthe at least part of the at least one print production facility.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, in which the at least part of the at least one printproduction facility comprises a document processing cell, wherein thefunctional and structural parameters provided from the print productionfacility includes at least one parameter relating to a resourceassociated with the document processing cell.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein the plurality of print job related parameters includes at leastone of (a) setup time, (b) batch size, and (c) number of operators. 4.The system of claim 1, in which the server includes said processor,wherein the simulation is performed at the server.
 5. The system ofclaim 4, in which the network communicatively couples two or more printproduction facilities, wherein a first model is provided for one of thetwo or more print production facilities based on a first set of printrelated parameters provided from the one of the two or more printproduction facilities, and a second model is provided for another one ofthe two or more print production facilities based on a second set ofprint related parameters from the other of the two or more printproduction facilities.
 6. The system of claim 1, in which the at leastpart of the at least one print production facility corresponds with theone or more processes, wherein the at least one value corresponding withthe performance of the one or more processes includes an amount of timerequired to execute the print job.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein theuser performs multiple simulations with multiple sets of user settablevalues for determining an efficient way of executing the print job. 8.The system of claim 7, wherein the efficient way of executing the printjob is obtained by one of changing and adding one or more printproduction facility resources.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein (1) aplurality of models is made available to the at least one printproduction facility, (2) a plurality of indicators corresponding withthe plurality of models is displayed on the display of said userinterface, and (3) the workflow displayed on the display of said userinterface corresponds with the one of the plurality of indicatorsselected by the user.
 10. A method of assessing performance of at leastpart of at least one print production facility, the at least part of theat least one print production facility including one or more printrelated devices, comprising: A. displaying each of the following:
 1. arepresentation of a model, the model being (a) obtained across a networkfrom a server communicating with and being remotely disposed of the atleast one print production facility, and (b) constructed at the server,based on functional and structural parameters provided from the printproduction facility, to correspond with a workflow including a pluralityof processes with each of the one or more processes corresponding withone or more print related components required to execute a print job,and
 2. a plurality of print job related parameters, and
 3. a pluralityof user settable values respectively corresponded with said plurality ofprint job related parameters; B. responsive to a user setting one ormore of the plurality of user settable values, using a processor toperform at least one simulation with the plurality of user settablevalues in accordance with the model; and C. responsive to performingsaid simulation of B., displaying, with the user interface, at least onevalue for indicating performance of the at least part of the printproduction facility.
 11. The method of claim 10, in which the at leastpart of the at least one print production facility comprises a documentprocessing cell, wherein the functional and structural parametersprovided from the print production facility includes a least oneparameter relating to a resource associated with the document processingcell.
 12. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of print jobrelated parameters includes at least one of (a) setup time, (b) batchsize, and (c) number of operators.
 13. The method of claim 10, whereinsaid simulation is performed at the server.
 14. The method of claim 10,in which the network communicatively couples two or more printproduction facilities, wherein a first model is provided for one of thetwo or more print production facilities based on a first set of printrelated parameters provided from the one of the two or more printproduction facilities, and a second model is provided for another one ofthe two or more print production facilities based on a second set ofprint related parameters from the other of the two or more printproduction facilities.
 15. The method of claim 10, in which the at leastpart of the at least one print production facility corresponds with theone or more processes, wherein the at least one value corresponding withthe performance of the one or more processes includes an amount of timerequired to execute the print job.
 16. The method of claim 10, wherein(1) a plurality of models is made available to the at least one printproduction facility, (2) a plurality of indicators corresponding withthe plurality of models is displayed on the display of said userinterface, and (3) the workflow displayed on the display of said userinterface corresponds with the one of the plurality of indicatorsselected by the user.
 17. The method of claim 10, wherein said B.includes performing multiple simulations with multiple sets of usersettable values for determining an efficient way of executing the printjob.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the efficient way of executingthe print job is obtained by one of changing and adding one or moreprint production facility resources.
 19. A method of assessingperformance of at least part of a print production facility, comprising:A. transmitting at least one parameter from the print productionfacility across a network to a server at which a modeling program isstored; B. responsive to said transmitting of A, receiving a copy of themodeling program, by way of the network, at the print productionfacility; C. operating the modeling program, in conjunction with aprocessor at the print production facility, to obtain at least onesystem performance indicator for the at the least part of the printproduction facility; and D. responsive to said operating of C.,displaying the at least one system performance indicator at the printproduction facility on the display of a user interface.
 20. The methodof claim 19, wherein the system performance indicator includes one orboth of steady state production efficiency and average buffer level. 21.The method of claim 19, wherein the at least one parameter from theprint production facility comprises a job parameter.
 22. The method ofclaim 21, wherein said A. includes transmitting a set of information forone machine including at least one of (1) mean time to failure, (2) meantime to repair, (3) mean production time, and (4) buffer size.
 23. Themethod of claim 22, wherein said A. further includes transmitting a setof information for another machine including at least one of (1) meantime to failure, (2) mean time to repair, (3) mean production time, and(4) buffer size.
 24. The method of claim 19, wherein the modelingprogram comprises a JAVA applet.